t is generally accepted that Messrs Shorthose and Pape’s sponsorship of a dog show, confined to Pointers
and Setters, at Newcastle on Tyne’s
Town Hall, and held on the 28th and
29th of June 1859 marked the start of
the canine fancy.
Birmingham Dog Show Society was the first to schedule Collies with the inclusion of a class for “Sheepdogs, Colleys, Yard or Keepers’ dogs” at their second show, although billed as “The First National Exhibition of Sporting and Other Dogs” in December 1860. From an entry of five, Messrs W. Lort and J. H. Walsh, of Stonehenge fame, considered Mr Wakefield’s bitch the only entry worthy of a prize.
Only the ‘Illustrated London News’, 15 December 1860, giving any indication of her qualities with the following report:
“Considering how well the Leicestershire and Warwickshire Sheepdogs muster at Sparkenhoe Club each September, we did expect to see their class better filled; but England has only a moderate champion; and a wiry-haired Scotch lass, with a face intelligent enough to know a Southdown from a Leicester, and all the crossbred ewes and wethers into the bargain, walked off with the £2 to Hurley, Warwickshire.”
For this reason we start our journey of discovery in 1861, exploring, and highlighting the events of each decade as they unfold.
